Tag: dmca

Final Update

I have canceled the copyright-infringement-notice.com domain name and archived the text elsewhere on this blog. All of this content was written in 2012 and hasn’t been updated in years. I am keeping the post you’re currently reading for historical and entertainment purposes. If you follow any outdated advice or information given below, you do so entirely at your own risk. I am not a lawyer and only a fool would take anything I write as legal advice.

I’ve got a treat for you guys. I’ve been forwarded an email as a result of my Copyright Infringement Notice website [note: domain canceled, archive link available at top of post] that is a prime example of a copyright infringement notice with a settlement demand enclosed. (Here’s a link to my earlier copyright infringement notice post that inspired that site.)

Below is the full text of a Charter Internet e-mail DMCA notice sent by Copyright Enforcement Group, LLC. The identifying information has been stripped and replaced with words in brackets. I want you to pay specific attention to a few things that often go unnoticed:

This is supposed to be a DMCA takedown notice. It is being abused to demand a settlement, rather than merely demand that infringement cease.

Note the XML section tag names and values, specifically the HashMatched and MetadataMatched values. What is notable here is that the hash and metadata are not the actual allegedly infringed content. Conspicuously absent is any indication that any of the file’s data was acquired from the alleged infringing party to ensure that they were actually offering out parts of the copyrighted material in question.

The hash is simply a calculated value based on the file(s) in the torrent that is likely to be unique, though it is possible for hash collisions to occur. Therefore, the hash under which someone is registered on a torrent tracker as a peer is not a reliable indicator of infringement. Being in a peer list for a theoretically infringing torrent and actually sending allegedly infringing data are very different things. Remember that a torrent peer list only lists IP addresses that supposedly have chunks of data for the hash in question and the only way to verify that the data is infringing is to actually acquire the data from the supposedly infringing party directly.

The metadata is information such as file names, sizes, and dates. Peer-to-peer file sharing has no way of enforcing the match between file metadata and file data, and in fact this was a severe real-world issue with the now-defunct Kazaa file sharing application, which was notorious for having incorrectly named files as well as having mismatched “file name” and “title” metadata. Again, the only way to verify that an offered file infringes is to fetch the file data from the person and verify that it contains the content described.

If a matching hash, matching metadata, IP address, port, and time are all the information that Copyright Enforcement Group, LLC can produce, they simply do not have enough information to prove that Joe Blow at 555 Foobar Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA is infringing on their copyrights.

I’ve noticed that in every single case where copyright infringement is alleged, the accusing party never offers up a complete copy of the file(s) alleged to be infringing; by extension, conspicuously absent is proof that the entirety of that infringing data was downloaded directly from the IP address in question rather than a combination of that IP address along with other peers in the same list for the hash in question.

The same accusers also fail to show that they have downloaded the file(s) in question themselves to verify that they are actually infringing. It can only be inferred that they are assuming the material infringes simply based on a matching piece of metadata (i.e. the file name contains a film name). Ask any file sharer who has downloaded an AVI file over the course of many hours or days only to discover it’s actually a password-protected RAR file how trustworthy such tagging is in practice.

The content of the infringement notice is below.

Dear Charter Internet Subscriber:

Charter Communications (“Charter”) has been notified by a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, that your Internet account may have been involved in the exchange of unauthorized copies of copyrighted material (e.g., music, movies, or software). We are enclosing a copy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice that Charter received from the copyright holder which includes the specific allegation.

Under the DMCA, copyright owners have the right to notify Charters register agent if they believe that a Charter customer has infringed on their work(s). When Charter receives a complaint notice from a copyright owner, Charter will notify the identifiable customer of the alleged infringement by providing them a copy of the submitted DMCA notice. As required by law, Charter may determine that the customer is a repeat copyright infringer and reserves the right to suspend or terminate the accounts of repeat copyright infringers.

It is possible that this activity has occurred without your permission or knowledge by an unauthorized user, a minor who may not fully understand the copyright laws, or even as a result of a computer virus. However, as the named subscriber on the account, you may be held responsible for any misuse of your account. Please be aware that using Charters service to engage in any form of copyright infringement is expressly prohibited by Charter’s Acceptable Use Policy and that repeat copyright infringement, or violations of any other Charter policy, may result in the suspension or termination of your service. You may view Charter’s rules and policies, including Charters Acceptable Use Policy, under the policies section of charter.com.

We ask that you take immediate action to stop the exchange of any infringing material. For additional information regarding copyright infringement and for a list of frequently asked questions, please visit charter.com/dmca.

If you have questions about this letter, you may contact us at 1-866-229-7286. Representatives will be available to take your call Monday through Friday 8am – 8pm, Saturday and Sunday 8am – 5pm (CST).

This notice is intended solely for the primary Charter Communications internet service account holder. Someone using this account has engaged in the illegal copying and/or distribution of pornographic movies. This notice may contain the titles of those movies, and therefore may contain text that is offensive to some readers.

You are hereby notified that your unauthorized copying and/or distribution infringes the registered copyrights of Diabolic under the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 106. In this regard, demand is hereby made that you and all persons using this account immediately and permanently cease and desist the unauthorized copying and/or distribution of the registered copyrights listed in this notice or otherwise owned by Diabolic.

You may also be held liable for monetary damages, including attorney’s fees and court costs if a lawsuit is commenced against you. You have until [redacted] to access the settlement offer and settle online. To access the settlement offer please visit http://www.copyrightsettlements.com/ and enter Case #: [redacted] and Password: [redacted]. To access the settlement offer directly please visit https://www.copyrightsettlements.com/?u=[case]&p=[password].

If you fail to respond or settle within the prescribed time period, the claim(s) will be referred to our attorneys for legal action. At that point the original settlement offer will no longer be an option and the amount will increase as a result of us having to involve our attorneys.

Nothing contained or omitted from this correspondence is, or shall be deemed to be either a full statement of the facts or applicable law, an admission of any fact, or waiver or limitation of any of the Diabolic’s rights or remedies, all of which are specifically retained and reserved.

The information in this notice is accurate. We have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of herein is not authorized by the registered copyright owner, its agent, or by operation of law. We swear under penalty of perjury, that we are authorized to act on behalf of Diabolic.

This notice is intended solely for the primary Charter Communications internet service account holder. Someone using this account has engaged in the illegal copying and/or distribution of pornographic movies. This notice may contain the titles of those movies, and therefore may contain text that is offensive to some readers.

You are hereby notified that your unauthorized copying and/or distribution infringes the registered copyrights of Diabolic under the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 106. In this regard, demand is hereby made that you and all persons using this account immediately and permanently cease and desist the unauthorized copying and/or distribution of the registered copyrights listed in this notice or otherwise owned by Diabolic.

You may also be held liable for monetary damages, including attorney’s fees and court costs if a lawsuit is commenced against you. You have until Sunday, November 27, 2011 to access the settlement offer and settle online. To access the settlement offer please visit http://www.copyrightsettlements.com/ and enter Case #: [case] and Password: [password]. To access the settlement offer directly please visit https://www.copyrightsettlements.com/?u=[case]&amp;p=[password].

If you fail to respond or settle within the prescribed time period, the claim(s) will be referred to our attorneys for legal action. At that point the original settlement offer will no longer be an option and the amount will increase as a result of us having to involve our attorneys.

Nothing contained or omitted from this correspondence is, or shall be deemed to be either a full statement of the facts or applicable law, an admission of any fact, or waiver or limitation of any of the Diabolic’s rights or remedies, all of which are specifically retained and reserved.

The information in this notice is accurate. We have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of herein is not authorized by the registered copyright owner, its agent, or by operation of law. We swear under penalty of perjury, that we are authorized to act on behalf of Diabolic.

Final Update

I have canceled the copyright-infringement-notice.com domain name and archived the text elsewhere on this blog. All of this content was written in 2012 and hasn’t been updated in years. I am keeping the post you’re currently reading for historical and entertainment purposes. If you follow any outdated advice or information given below, you do so entirely at your own risk. I am not a lawyer and only a fool would take anything I write as legal advice.

HUGE FAT WARNING: I AM NOT A LAWYER. If you need legal advice, GET A REAL LAWYER.

Update 2, 2011-11-02: My little site at http://copyright-infringement-notice.com/ has been massively updated, including a guide for people who are panicking and feel a need to do immediate damage control.

Update: This is one of the most popular pages on my entire blog now…so, I’m now running a small website that provides information about copyright infringement notices. Check it out at http://copyright-infringement-notice.com/ and give me additional ideas, suggestions, or information to make it better!

I generally keep myself aware of what’s going on with the whole peer-to-peer file sharing scene, particularly because the case law it generates changes the nature of copyright law in this country, and as someone who writes software, I need to know about such changes. Additionally, because I download a good number of legitimate files from BitTorrent trackers (i.e. Linux distribution CD images), I want to know what I’m stepping in. I’ve noticed a very disturbing trend over time which concerned me enough to finally write a whole blog post:

“Copyright cops” who threaten users of BitTorrent trackers frivolously pursue anyone whose IP appears on their radar and their evidence would not stand up to even the most trivial review.

That’s right, companies such as BayTSP, Copyright Enforcement Group, U.S. Copyright Group, and other paid agents of large media companies are bringing claims against torrent users without even collecting evidence of infringement. For example, the University of Washington was able to trigger a DMCA copyright infringement cease-and-desist notice being sent to their technical department. The copyright cops caught the user at this UW IP address RED-HANDED, INFRINGING ON THEIR COPYRIGHT!

The IP address being accused of BitTorrent-based copyright infringement belonged to a network printer.

No, I’m not kidding. The recording/movie/television industry copyright “enforcement” corporations accused their network printer of stealing movies. That’s how easy it is to be wrongly accused. But what else? There’s another experiment from 2007 which was performed with a specially written BitTorrent client which explicitly did not download nor upload any material, only jumped on a tracker and added itself to peer lists. This client, which was designed to be incapable of actually infringing copyrights, generated copyright infringement notices from BayTSP despite the fact that such infringement was simply not possible with that application!

I find this to be absolutely ridiculous, particularly because of the nature of these notices. Many of them are also legal threats. Regardless of innocence or guilt, any filing of a lawsuit against you costs money to handle, and if it’s so easy for these automated copyright scanning processes to both target the wrong person entirely AND target people who didn’t provably upload or download file data at all, that doesn’t bode well for any of the parties involved. It’s fairly obvious that the “copyright cop” companies are basing their claims of infringement solely on the population of BitTorrent trackers’ peer lists. They don’t actually download the entire file from you and keep logs that show they did so as evidence that you indeed infringed on their copyright; they merely see your address in a particular list and send off the notice.

What’s even more outrageous to me is that these companies advertise their services as being unethical right off the bat. They resort to legal threats and mass lawsuits against “infringing parties” but they advertise it to content owners and rights holders this way: “Monetize copyright infringement! We can bring you income from a surprising source: people who download your content illegally!” It’s not even about doing the right thing, it’s about the bottom line, meaning they have no reason to care about innocent people being caught in the dragnet.

Despite the risk of a lawsuit, if you happen to receive a DMCA copyright infringement notice which is forwarded by your ISP, either by email or regular mail, here’s my advice:

DO NOT EVER CLICK ON ANYTHING IN AN EMAIL, VISIT ANY WEBSITE IN A LETTER OR POSTCARD, OR OTHERWISE REPLY OR MAKE CONTACT IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER! You run a plethora of risks if you respond in any way, even indirectly such as by visiting the “copyright cops” website out of curiosity. They can fingerprint your computer, you may be implicitly admitting guilt even if you’re innocent, you could hand them personal information such as your full name by accident…the list goes on. DON’T DO IT.

Read the studies above, as well as any other relevant material you find online such as articles on p2pnet.net [note: this site has been gone for a while now], just in case anything happens. If you end up in a bad situation, you need to be able to educate your lawyer on how their infringement detection tactics are grossly flawed. Be prepared, JUST IN CASE.

If you really did infringe on someone’s copyright, do the right thing. That means disposing of the things you’ve downloaded and putting yourself in a position where you’re less likely to end up with more infringement notices. That doesn’t mean admitting guilt. Don’t ever admit guilt in any way, just delete the downloads, stop downloading stuff you shouldn’t be, and shut up about the whole thing. Admitting ANYTHING is just plain begging for a lawsuit.

If you’re truly paranoid, back up your data, zero out your hard drive using something like the Tritech Service System (running “dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda” will do it on almost any computer out there), and reinstall clean so there’s no evidence left behind. If you get in a legal fight and your computer gets subpoenaed for discovery, you can’t do this, but there’s nothing stopping you from doing as you please with your hard drive before receiving a subpoena.

Most ISPs won’t kick you off their service for this. Don’t respond to the ISP unless you receive direct threats from them. If your ISP threatens to disconnect your service, use the information in the experiments above to explain to them that these people are making claims for which they have no real proof, and that you are not infringing on anyone’s copyrights. Remember that the ISP has no reason to boot you unless you’re a very egregious media thief, and if that’s the case you probably can’t read this by now anyway.

As a creator of copyrighted works, I can’t condone the piracy of copyrighted material, but I also feel that the major media industry corporations have gone way too far with their “sue them all” tactics. If someone pirated my creation and I found out, I wouldn’t threaten them or demand a settlement payment so quickly; I’d ask them to do the right thing and just pay up for it if they liked it (or toss it if they didn’t and tell me why so I could make it better.)

Don’t steal stuff, but don’t let big companies steal from you for something you didn’t do either.

It would be nice to hear from a real copyright lawyer on this issue. Feel free to comment, especially if you’re a lawyer. I don’t post email addresses, your comment will be as anonymous as you name it to be.